As one method for inspecting and observing a biological sample extracted from a human body, a laboratory animal, or the like, a method is known in which a thin section is prepared from an embedding block in which the biological sample is embedded by an embedding agent, dye processing is performed on the thin section, and thus, the biological sample is observed.
In the related art, an operation of preparing the thin section is performed manually by an experienced operator using a sharp and thin cutting blade. However, in recent years, an automatic thin-cutting device capable of automatically performing the operation of preparing the thin section has begun to be provided. According to this automatic thin-cutting device, it is possible to continuously prepare the thin section without imposing a burden on the operator.
In addition, in the automatic thin-cutting device, quality management or the like is performed by reading ID data printed on a cassette to which the embedding block is fixed. For example, the ID data includes data which indicates an identification number for identifying the embedding blocks individually or data of the embedding block (data indicates that the biological sample is obtained from which experimental animal, data indicates that the biological sample is obtained from which internal organ of the experimental animal, or the like).
Accordingly, by reading the ID data, it is possible to correctly distinguish each of the plurality of embedding blocks, it is possible to correctly understand whether or not the thin-cutting ends, and as a result, it is possible to perform the quality management as described above.